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The men and women of the American oil industry are facilitating the greatest increase in the availability of life supporting fuel seen in decades. Their prodigious creation of oil—through advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technologies—has stabilized world crude prices, reducing the need for U.S. oil imports and increasing the availability of liquid fuels which have offset the damage …

The creators of Thanksgiving recognized that they had a lot to be thankful for–and yet they were lucky if 2/3 of their children made it past the age of 15. If they were grateful for the fruits of their way of life, how grateful should we be for ours? Every year I spend studying industrial civilization, I become more grateful …

Every Thanksgiving, the Wall Street Journal publishes two complementary, must-read articles: “The Desolate Wilderness” and “The Fair Land.” Here’s an excerpt from “The Desolate Wilderness,” “the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton , keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford , sometime governor thereof:” Being …

Alex Epstein’s latest Master Resource article, “Challenging Bill McKibben and the Green Establishment: The Environmental Case for Fossil Fuels” gives the background and details about his upcoming debate with Bill McKibben. Last July, McKibben, an environmentalist, author and journalist, made an outrageous and dangerous call for dismantling the fossil fuel industry. Alex quickly challenged McKibben to a debate. “This is the first …

Even with natural gas prices near ten-year lows, the Eagle Ford shale shows no sign of slowing oil production. It produced 27.1 million barrels for the first four months of this year, Texas Railroad Commission figures show, while Eagle Ford oil production for all of 2011 totaled 36.6 million barrels. “So we’re already 75 per- cent of the way to …

What is the highest-leverage thing that you as an individual can do to advance liberty and industrial progress in America? This speech and Q&A, which I gave to Berkeley Students for Liberty in February, is my answer to that question. It’s based on a powerful idea I call “reframing the moral narrative.” Download this special feature with Alex Epstein

By Alex Epstein [This essay was originally published in two parts as “Go Industrial, Not ‘Green,’” at MasterResource.]In the wake of two recessions following two fleeting, largely service-sector bubbles—the dot-com bubble and the housing/financial bubble—America’s intellectual and political leaders are championing the need for industrial progress.The ubiquitous Thomas L. Friedman takes on the subject of industrial progress in his latest …